Some more excitement.........

Hi there. Sarah here again. No, this is not turning in to a takeover bid, it's just that Wonder Boy has been making life even more exciting over the last couple of days to the extent that he is once again tucked up in a hospital bed.

As Dave himself has already mentioned, he has been experiencing some bouts of severe breathlessness which have been very frightening - he says that he has felt as if he is suffocating at times. Yesterday morning he had two bouts and went to see our GP late morning to have this checked out. On examination the doctor said that Dave's right lung sounded dull as if it contained some fluid and that he needed to be admitted to hospital immediately. On hearing this Dave called me home from work and we reported to A and E as instructed. We were told on arrival that there were no spare beds in the hospital and no spare bays in A and E so we would need to wait in the Waiting Room. The medical registrar would come down and see us at some point but there was a likely wait of approximately 4 hours. I was quite upset at this as to be honest it seems ridiculous that a terminally ill patient has to wait to be seen in amongst all the minor injuries dealt with in a Casualty department - especially when they are as poorly as Dave. In the event I got our Macmillan nurse, Caroline, on the case and she managed to talk to a few contacts at the hospital who managed to persuade the Bed Manager to get Dave a side room on the surgical ward where he first went after his original operation. This process took 5 hours but the end result was a good one and I was even more pleased with the result today when I found out that the reason the hospital was so busy was that they are on a "red alert" with 4 wards closed due to the d and v bug norovirus (or whatever it's called). Dave is very pleased to be on Ward 16 as all the nurses still remember him and he gets well and truly pampered even to the extent of them searching the biscuit tin to find him custard creams and making him copious amounts of toast when his ailing appetite does not feel up to tackling the hospital food.

The experience of A and E was like being in an episode of Holby City without the glamour. The poor junior doctor who dealt with us looked as if he had already worked 200 hours this week and was wearing two bleeps and two mobile phones which bleeped and rang constantly. He took an xray which showed a shadow covering a third of Dave's right lung. This was quite alarming for us as the secondary cancers in Dave's lungs which were found last year were in his left lung. The junior doctor discussed the xray with the consultant and they decided to order a CT scan and an ultrasound scan for today to determine what the shadow was. Three possible theories were discussed: fluid on the lung which could possibly be drained off but might reoccur, an embolism (blood clot) possibly treatable or the worst option, a large mass of tumour. As Dave has not had any kind of scan for a year now the thought of how much the tumours may have grown is quite frightening.

The scans have been done today but we have not yet seen a doctor, however from what the ultrasound technician said tonight it seems it may be the fluid option which would, in a way, be a relief as something should be able to be done. In the meantime while we wait for the official results Dave is relaxing as much as he can and has been given oxygen. He slept with the oxygen thingy up his nose last night and slept really well as in the last few days he was starting to get frightened of going to sleep in case he had one of these nasty episodes. It seems as though we may need to have oxygen at home in the future.

Things are much calmer with all of us today. Yesterday was a very upsetting day which ended with Dave, Emma and I all in tears in his hospital room. It is at these sorts of times that we really feel the pain of everything that is happening to our happy little unit and there is absolutely nothing we can do to get control of what is going on. The evening was made all the more traumatic by the fact that a man in one of the other side rooms is dying and has refused all pain relief, so he was screaming with pain most of the time and when he wasn't doing that he was being abusive to the nursing staff. Having seen with Dave's situation how painful pelvic disease can be, I find it very hard to understand any valid reason why anyone would refuse pain relief and die in such a state of distress. I wonder if her realises how much distress respecting his wishes is causing the medical and nursing staff and the other patients.

We will obviously keep you avid blog followers up to date as to what happens with Dave (I've had numerous texts and emails asking what is happening......). I'm sure he will post again soon.